Joe Biden’s popularity stems from his perception of “folksiness.” In reality, though, Biden’s record is anything but working class–friendly.
Search Results for: Alexander Cockburn
Sep
01
2012
In Memoriam:
Alexander Cockburn and Gore Vidal
FAIR recently lost two of its mentors. On July 21 came the unexpected death of radical journalist Alexander Cockburn, who was one of two or three writers to whom FAIR most owes its existence. Cockburn inspired a revival of hard-hitting political media criticism in the Village Voice’s Press Clips column, which he launched in 1973; he moved his assault on the Fourth Estate to the Nation in 1983. Part of his appeal was simply how well he wrote: He had a voice that was effortlessly stylish, boundlessly informed, savagely funny and unapologetically left. He once recalled C.L. Sulzberger (New York [...]
Nov
01
2007
Letters to the Editor
The DDT Debate The quality of the science in Aaron Swartz’s article on DDT (Extra!, 9-10/07) is exceptionally poor. It suggests a lack of understanding of the issue. The inaccuracies are numerous; in fact, virtually every statement is at best slanted. For instance, “there is no global ban on DDT” is at best deliberately misleading. It is banned in all U.S. programs, which means programs funded by the U.S., and until September 14, 2006, it was also banned in U.N. programs. In other words, virtually all programs that could possibly impact Third World malaria rates had to be done without [...]
Oct
01
2007
City of Terror
Painting Paraguay's 'casbah' as terror central
When we arrived in Ciudad del Este, we were petrified. After all, we were in the Paraguayan city known in the American press as a "Jungle Hub for World’s Outlaws" (L.A. Times, 8/24/98), and a "hotbed" "teeming with Islamic extremists and their sympathizers" (New York Times, 12/15/02). The U.S. media's portrayal of this city, the center of a zone on the frontiers of Argentina and Brazil known as the Tri-Border Area, left us expecting to see cars bombs exploding, terrorists training and American flags burning. We soon realized that picture painted by U.S. media was inaccurate. In the Cold War, [...]
Sep
01
2007
Letters to the Editor
Violence & Worker Control I always appreciate—and enjoy—reading Extra!, and the July/August 2007 issue was no exception. I was surprised, though, to read that Noam Chomsky believes that in democratic societies, “the state has lost the capacity to control the population by violence.” Rather, it seems to me, violence is the last resort of the ruling class, when the working class has become too powerful to control by other means. Weak and disorganized working classes require little effort to control. In the United States, for instance, the working class is so thoroughly disorganized and powerless that it has little ability [...]
Mar
19
2007
Iraq and the Media
A Critical Timeline
It's hardly controversial to suggest that the mainstream media's performance in the lead-up to the Iraq War was a disaster. In retrospect, many journalists and pundits wish they had been more skeptical of the White House's claims about Iraq, particularly its allegations about weapons of mass destruction. At the same time, though, media apologists suggest that the press could not have done much better, since "everyone" was in agreement on the intelligence regarding Iraq's weapons threat. This was never the case. Critical journalists and analysts raised serious questions at the time about what the White House was saying. Often, however, [...]
Feb
02
2007
Remembering Molly Ivins
Progressive voice a rarity on the op-ed page
Incisive, forceful and funny progressive columnist and author Molly Ivins died January 31 from breast cancer at the age of 62. Ivins' career included stints as a police reporter at the Minneapolis Star Tribune and a reporter at the New York Times, but most came to know her work through reading her syndicated column, which appeared in over 300 newspapers, making her the most widely syndicated progressive columnist in the country. Throughout the years, FAIR has been proud to be associated with Molly Ivins. In a syndicated column in 2003, Ivins suggested readers could send donations to a number of [...]
Jan
12
2007
Alexander Cockburn on NY Times & Iraq, Matt Zimmerman on Spocko & Disney
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The New York Times finger prints are all over the Iraq war, says Alexander Cockburn. In his latest dispatch on the subject the CounterPunch proprietor and Nation magazine columnist shows how the nation's leading newspaper is pushed for an escalation of the conflict—even as the American public is rejecting a "surge" and calling for withdrawal. We'll talk to Alexander Cockburn about the War and the New York Times. Also on CounterSpin today, when a blogger in the San Francisco Bay area decided to document the nasty and violent rhetoric on a local Disney-owned radio [...]
